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Harvest Daily - August 10, 2005

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

—1 Corinthians 9:24

In our spiritual race, if we want to win, we have to cope with failure. We have to get back up. We can’t lie in the dirt, wallowing in guilt. We will be disqualified for quitting.

David recovered. He enjoyed many good years after his fiasco. Though he also faced the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, in the end, David made a beautiful comeback. He was like a runner who was sprinting, leaving everyone else in his dust—who then crashed. You would think he’d just admit defeat. But David got up and made it across the finish line.

If you want to run fast, you have to run light. Would you run a 10K wearing scuba tanks? I don’t think so.

As you run the race of life, you need to periodically ask yourself if the different things you are doing are weights or wings. Will they speed you on your way, or will they slow you down? Are they increasing your spiritual appetite or diminishing it? Are they making you stronger or weaker? If some activity is slowing you down, diminishing your hunger for God, or making you run slower, it is time to get rid of it. Jettison these things that pull you back, and run as lightly as you can.

Like David, you can get back in the race and make a beautiful finish.

—Greg Laurie, Losers and Winners, Saints and Sinners

In his newest book, Losers and Winners, Saints and Sinners, Greg Laurie examines the lives of biblical personalities—good and bad—revealing why some fell and failed while others picked themselves up and finished strong in the spiritual race.